Jerry Bever, general manager for CBS Anchorage affiliate KTVA, issued a statement today regarding the inadvertent voice mail left on the phone of a senior staff member of the Joe Miller campaign. He claimed that the discussion his staff members had regarding potential scandals for the Miller campaign was taken out of context:

The complete conversation was about what others might be able to do to cause disruption within the Miller campaign, not what KTVA could do.

The American public is supposed to believe that the staff of KTVA were sitting around imagining potentially scandalous stories that others might foist upon the Miller campaign and not ideas that they, themselves were conjuring.

Instead of just taking Mr. Bever’s word for it (like so many in the media and at Soros-Funded left-wing activist organizations have), lets actually hold the statements made on the recording up to the context Mr. Bever has provided.

Look at what was said and try as hard as you can to fit these sentences into that context:

MALE REPORTER: Oh yeah… can you repeat Joe Miller’s…uh… list of people, campaign workers, which one’s the molester?

[INAUDIBLE]

FEMALE VOICE: We know that out of all the people that will show up tonight, at least one of them will be a registered sex offender.

[Laughter]

MALE REPORTER: You have to find that one person…

If they were discussing what others might do, why do they keep saying “You” and “I”? Why don’t they say “They have to find that one person…” or “They know that out of all the people…” (more…)

If current conditions hold through Tuesday, it is highly likely that Republicans will regain control of the House of Representatives, and quite possibly the Senate as well.  The Democrats will leave behind a fiscal mess of gargantuan proportions. Under current spending levels as projected by the non-partisan Congressional Budget Office, by 2050 our individual share of the national debt will be $279,000 per person. Now, stop to think about that for a moment: when children and students today get to be their parents age they will owe $279,000 to the IRS for the national debt. And as if the national debt wasn’t bad enough, unemployment for young adults stubbornly hovers above 15%.

Most Americans know that action must be taken now to address the national debt.  The favorite technique of the left—portraying any move toward lower spending as heartless—won’t stand in the face of the undeniable reality of this debt crisis.  Perhaps that’s why the deficit-denying Democrats find themselves in such trouble less than a week before Election Day.  The American people are ready for bold action to get our government under control and our economy back on track, and the Democrats aren’t.

We’ve seen such bold action in New Jersey under Governor Christie, and even in England and Germany under Conservative governments.  New Jersey, once a fiscal basket case, now has a balanced budget and taxes were not raised.  Germany’s unemployment has reached an 18 year low, and the UK’s economy grew at twice the rate forecasters had predicted last quarter.  In these places, we’ve caught a glimpse of the conservative future—and it works.

(more…)

The following brief statement has been released from the U.S. Senate campaign of Republican Joe Miller regarding audio posted on Big Government and Big Journalism last night:

Now the media has gone from trying to create stories to openly lying. The audio was pulled directly from the voicemail message. Nothing was altered. “Everything that was recorded on my phone is what we released without change,” said Randy Desoto.

Neither Big Government, nor Big Journalism altered the audio before publication, either.

Both Politico and the Washington Post appear content to embarrass themselves by pushing a response from CBS-KTVA which Ed Morrissey termed “absurd,” in addition to some propaganda and an attempt at obfuscation from the Soros-funded Media Matters in its weak attempts to attack the messenger, be that Breitbart, Inc., or former Governor Sarah Palin.

We stand fully behind the original posting and view KTVA’s response as unserious, amounting to little more than, who are you going to believe, us or your lying ears?

(more…)

It’s Halloween, and in the Land of (Honest Abe) Lincoln a liberal judge is wearing a Republican mask and lying to voters.

Staring disaster in the face on Tuesday, Democrats are running scared. And some are even running as Republicans.

Thomas Kilbride is running to be “retained” as a State Supreme Court Justice in Illinois. He needs 60% of voters in the 3rd District, which comprises a band across the middle of Illinois from the Mississippi River to Indiana, to re-elect him.

Kilbride is a Democrat, according to Wikipedia’s State Supreme Court page for Illinois, and received $600,000 from the Democratic party in 2000 when he first ran. But Republicans and conservatives in his District will be forgiven for being confused about that, because they’ve recently been bombarded with campaign flyers indicating Kilbride is a Republican.

(more…)

The death tax is a punitive levy that discourages saving and investment and causes substantial economic inefficiency. But it’s also an immoral tax that seizes assets from grieving families solely because someone dies. The good news is that this odious tax no longer exists. It disappeared on January 1, 2010, thanks to the 2001 tax cut legislation. The bad news is that the death tax comes back with a vengeance on January 1, 2011, ready to confiscate as much as 55 percent of the assets of unfortunate families.

I’ve criticized the death tax on many occasions, including one column in USA Today explaining the economic damage caused by this perverse form of double taxation, and I highlighted a few of the nations around the world that have eliminated this odious tax in another column for the same paper.

Politicians don’t seem persuaded by these arguments, in part because they feel class warfare is a winning political formula. President Obama, House Ways & Means Committee Chairman Charlie Rangel, and Senate Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus have been successful in thwarting efforts to permanently kill the death tax. But I wonder what they’ll say if their obstinate approach results in death?

Congresswoman Cynthia Lummis of Wyoming is getting a bit of attention (including a link on the Drudge Report) for her recent comments that some people may choose to die in the next two months in order to protect family assets from the death tax. For successful entrepreneurs, investors, and small business owners who might already be old (especially if they have a serious illness), there is a perverse incentive to die quickly.

(more…)

“That’s sick. Those are corrupt bastards, Chris.”

Sarah Palin told Chris Wallace on FOX News Sunday this morning that “we have the tape that proves it” of the “corrupt bastards” in the media conspiring against Joe Miller.

Sarah Palin weighs in on the corrupt bastards in the Alaska media:

“Just last night it was revealed that the rally that I had for Joe Miller on Thursday, it was revealed and we have the tape to prove it, that the CBS reporters, the affiliate in Alaska, conspired to make up stories about Joe Miller. We have the tape Chris, and I can’t wait until it busts out all over the nation, that shows what it is that we… kinda what I put up with for two years now from the media… but what Joe Miller is faced with in someone like Lisa Murkowsky who feels so entitled to that seat, that she and some of her people including some complicit in the media will do anything, they will stop at nothing, to allow Lisa Murkowsky to get back elected.”

(more…)

As I mentioned in an earlier post, I am here all week in Texas in Houston’s 18th Congressional District observing the energetic and determined work of the King Street Patriots as they implement their poll-watching initiative, True The Vote.

True The Vote made news early this month when initiative Chief Catherine Engelbrecht discovered that a former Service Employee International Union (SEIU) member had turned in over 23 thousand fraudulent voter registration cards. Englebrecht and the King Streeters then decided that they would initiate a grassroots poll-watching effort to make sure that the election was fair and that all laws and regulations were properly observed.

By the reaction of the well organized, heavily funded left, you’d have thought that the King Streeters had proposed shooting puppies.

Engelbrecht and the King Streeters fanned out across Harris County to observe — and report if necessary — any improprieties they encountered at voting places, many in minority communities. The reaction was quick and virulently negative.

The left-wing rumor site TPM recently posted a piece full of innuendo about the finances of the King Street Patriots attempting to sway people to believe that some shadowy, backroom, conservative groups simply must be funding them because it just can’t be a self funded group.

TPM cites KSPs report that the $87,000 it has raised over the last few months has almost all come from donations from its grassroots supporters. This rings true in this world of new found conservative activism this year. Many reports have discovered that Tea Party groups and first time GOP candidates have been funded for the large part by small donors and grassroots activists. The King Streeters are no exception.

(more…)

Reason.tv was on hand for the Rally to Restore Sanity And/Or Fear hosted by Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert at the National Mall in Washington on Saturday, October 30.

The crowd was huge, the weather fine, the signs memorable, and the people…well, let’s just say they were there too. Some were apolitical and just out for a fun day, some were big fans of Comedy Central’s best-known personalities, some were inadvertent dadaists, and more than a few defined sanity strictly in terms of heartily agreeing with themselves.

(more…)

From James Richardson:

UPDATE:

From the Miller Campaign:

Now the media has gone from trying to create stories to openly lying. The audio was pulled directly from the voicemail message. Nothing was altered. “Everything that was recorded on my phone is what we released without change,” said Randy Desoto.

***

The following voice mail message was inadvertently left on the cell phone of Joe Miller campaign spokesperson Randy DeSoto.

The voices are believed to be those of the news director for CBS Anchorage affiliate KTVA, along with assignment editor Nick McDermott, and other reporters, openly discussing creating, if not fabricating, two stories about Republican nominee for U.S. Senate, Joe Miller.

The following is a transcript of a call recorded after CBS Alaska affiliate KTVA called Joe Miller’s Senate campaign spokesperson. The call failed to disconnect properly. It was later authenticated by McDermott, who sent a text to Randy DeSoto stating, “Damn iPhone… I left you a long message. I thought I hung up. Sorry.”

Audio KTVA –

Clearly the reporters were conspiring to set up some type of smear of Joe Miller. With glee, they even cite a recent controversy over an incident involving the Rand Paul campaign, while discussing how they would spread the story via social media after whatever incident they had in mind came off. It also brings to mind another recent episode that ended with Jerry Brown’s California gubernatorial campaign being caught up in controversy when someone from Brown’s camp called Brown’s opponent, Republican Meg Whitman, a “whore.”

(more…)

The Great Recession officially ended way back in June of 2009, so why are so many Americans still out of work?

It’s not because politicians were twiddling their thumbs. Indeed, from from bailouts to “Cash for Clunkers” to the massive stimulus plan, government has busied itself with trying to fix the economy. And, according to President Obama, this “bold, persistent, experimentation” has brought our country back from the brink.

Obama borrows that phrase from President Franklin Rooselvelt, and today’s president has a lot in common with the original bold, persistent, experimenter. Like Obama, FDR was a charismatic Democrat who replaced an unpopular Republican during a time of crisis. And like Obama, FDR championed a slew of policies designed to get America back to work.

Today many Americans credit FDR with rescuing our nation from the Great Depression, but there’s plenty wrong with that view, says Lee Ohanian, a UCLA economics professor who specializes in economic crisis.

(more…)

Nationwide, government at every level is requiring more and more of the workforce to get its permission just to earn a living.

In the 1950s, only about 5 percent of the workforce needed a government license to do their job. Today, that number is over 30 percent.  And governments impose all kinds of other requirements that make it hard for would-be entrepreneurs to start and grow small businesses.

Entrepreneurs like Chuck, here:

Unemployment in the United States has now topped 9.5 percent for 14 straight months—the longest stretch since the Great Depression.  Nearly 14.8 million people were unemployed last month.

Consider the nation’s capital.

Year after year, Washington, D.C., is ranked the worst place in the United States to start a small business. How can the District change its ways to allow entrepreneurs to create more jobs and opportunity?

(more…)

On November 2, American citizens will go to the polls to elect our political leaders. One state measure demands the attention of environmental and energy interests across the nation:  Proposition 23 in California.

Proposition 23 would delay implementation of AB32, the California Global Warming Solutions Act, until state unemployment drops below 5.5 percent. Over $25 million has been raised by advocates and opponents of the measure. In a desperate attempt to save AB32, environmental groups have turned up the propaganda machine.

Assembly Bill 32 was signed into law in September, 2006 by Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger. The bill requires a reduction in state greenhouse gas emissions to 1990 levels by 2020. As tasked, the California Air Resources Board (CARB) developed a “Scoping Plan” in 2008, making AB32 the toughest U.S. climate legislation.

The Plan calls for a Low Carbon Fuel Standard for vehicle fuels, and includes regulations for tires, engine oils, paints, window glazes, and vehicle insurance. New fees and regulations are required for housing, businesses, trucking, refrigerated vehicles, cargo vessels, rail freight, and chemicals. California must participate in the Western Climate Initiative cap-and-trade system. AB32 is a blizzard of new regulations for California consumers and businesses.

(more…)

From the Washington Times:

Things in Nevada are getting hotter. Not content with the direction the country and their home state is going in, a group of Nevada voters calling themselves “Concerned Nevadans That Care About Our Country” will launch an anti-Harry Reid ad this evening.

Members of this group represent those from traditional Democratic coalitions and base demographics, like: African-Americans, Latinos, and union members.

In the ad, these individuals urge Democratic Nevada voters to break away from their practice of supporting liberals like Harry Reid.

In fact, the ad goes one step further and looks to draw in union members who are disgruntled with union leadership’s pro-amnesty policies.

(more…)

—–

Suggested topics of discussion:

1. Was Jon Stewart telling the truth when he told the news media “Restore Sanity and/or Fear” wasn’t a response to Glenn Beck’s wildly successful and apolitical “Restore Honor” event?

2. Why is Sheryl Crow a star?

3. How many parents are using the rally as a rare opportunity to air out the basement where their slacker/loser thirtysomething child dwells?

4. Are the guys in raincoats from Media Matters? (more…)

The left is in high dudgeon here in the 18th Congressional District in Houston, Texas. Democrat Representative Sheila Jackson Lee, a long-time left-winger, has held this seat since 1995 and she isn’t going to go away quietly. She is quite upset at the gall of a new conservative group that launched a poll watching effort in her district. In fact, Lee is so incensed that she has insisted that the Dept. of Justice launch an investigation of the King Street Patriots on trumped up charges that they have been harassing Hispanic and black voters here in Houston.

Lee has claimed that these all volunteer, Tea Party-inspired poll watchers have been intimidating minorities and has helped spread the false accusation that some shadowy, outside group has been funding them to target Houston’s minority voters.

As I have found out, though, the truth is far different than the overheated claims of the extreme left. To see for myself what the heck is going on in Harris County, Texas, I hopped a flight from Chicago’s O’Hare and winged my way to the Magnolia City to visit with Catherine Engelbrecht, chief cook and bottle washer of True The Vote and member of the King Street Patriots.

Some may recall that Engelbrecht made news back in September when she discovered that a former member of the Service Employees International Union (SEIU) had registered over 23 thousand fraudulent voters in Texas.

(more…)

If Obamacare is completely implemented, doctors will no longer be practicing medicine. They will instead become the drones tasked with deciding who gets the meager healthcare crumbs doled out by the bureaucrats who have the ultimate power over patient life and death. Those who are deemed to have illnesses that require treatments which are not cost effective can expect a one way ticket to a hospice.

Like so many bills passed by Congress, there was a hidden provision in the Stimulus bill passed in 2009. It spends 1.1 billion dollars to create an important piece of the framework for the healthcare bill called the Coordinating Council on Comparative Effectiveness Research. It is based on the false premise that doctors in consultation with their patients don’t have the ability to make the right healthcare choices (see executive summary). The council consists of 15 people appointed by the President.

They all have one thing in common–they are all isolated from day to day patient care; and therefore, are insulated from the real practice of the art of medicine. It makes it easy to see patients as a cost center to be controlled. With views of members like Dr Emanuel, who champions the complete-lives system, it is hard to ignore the probability that senior citizens, those with chronic illness, and the very young will be on the outside looking in. This council is another example of the people of this country being told by the government that it knows what is best for us.

The framework set up by the stimulus bill merely set the stage for the implementation found in the healthcare reform bill. How can the government get doctors to participate in Obamacare thereby a) willingly destroying the doctor patient relationship, and  b) betraying their Hippocratic Oath to provide treatments that they deem to be effective? Simple – fear and intimidation.

(more…)

Today, 10’s or 100’s of thousands of hip lefties will gather in Washington D.C. to nod approvingly-and ironically-at wry witticisms instead of, you know, walking precincts, cavassing voters or making get-out-the-vote calls. The kinds of things you usually do the weekend before the midterm elections. Yes, lefties, travel this weekend. Thank you, Jon Stewart. We hope your rally attracts millions.